Unswerving Loyalty, Unquestioning Devotion, Unremitting Obedience. This is the vow of the Imperial Guard for his mistress, the Goddess-Empress.

Nobody said anything about Love.

Kristoff Verrai is assigned to find Charlotte Walker, the new Goddess-Empress, and bring her to be crowned. But she’s a Royal and he’s a commoner so loving her isn’t an option.

Tell that to his heart.

Now Charlotte and Kristoff are on a mission to get her to Femme 1 where the Golden Throne awaits her. But they’ll have to dodge assassin-droids, imposters, and the evil Count Doloroso to get there.

And after all that, they’ll have to fight the most dangerous threat at of all…the growing love between them.

***Kristoff, Head of the Imperial Guard has come to swear his vow of loyalty to Charlotte, a regular med student who–unbeknownst to her–also happens to be the Empress of the Galaxy. ***

“Oh!” Charlotte jumped and put a hand to her mouth, her green eyes getting wide.

Again, my body responded unbidden, my skin giving a bright flash of yellow in response to her fear and surprise.

“Why are you doing that?” she asked in a wavering voice. “What does that mean?”

“You mean my skin color?” I could have asked the same thing. It seemed strange to me that I was already so attuned to her that my body changed my skin tone without conscious effort on my part. But then I remembered the blood she had given me—that must be the cause.

“My body is simply reacting to your moods—reflecting your emotions as you have them,” I explained.

“What? That…that’s bizarre! Why?” she demanded.

“Because I am yours, Goddess,” I told her simply.

It was what every Majoran male says to the female he chooses to give his life to and acknowledge as his own personal goddess but my words seemed to bother Charlotte deeply.

“You’re mine? What does that mean?” she demanded. “I don’t even know you!”

“No, but you will. Come…” I led her to the small, padded couch she had behind her food-prep area. Once she was settled, I went to my knees before her once more.

“What are you doing?” She looked at me nervously. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to propose?”

“Propose?” I frowned at her. “You fear I am asking you to be my bonded mate?”

“Um…I guess that’s one way to put it.” She nibbled her full lower lip nervously and I had to fight to keep my body from flashing orange in response to her emotion.

“Please don’t fear that,” I told her. “Though my life and my chastity are sworn to your service, I would never be a candidate for Royal Consort—my blood is not exalted enough. As I told you before, my mother was only a lesser noble.”

“Um…” She still seemed not to understand. “So then…why are you on your knees in front of me like that? It’s kind of, uh, making me nervous.”

“I know,” I said. “I can tell.”

Feeling the emotions of the Empress, even though none of us is her fated mate, is one of the unique attributes of the Imperial Guards. Most other males of the Twelve Peoples only feel the emotions of their chosen females after they bond. But for us, the ties of loyalty run so deep, we are intimately connected to she who sits upon the Golden Throne.

“Kristoff,” she began but I took her hands in mine, sending a charged tingle through both of us.

I knew well enough what that tingle meant—that the new Empress was a La-ti-zal, a female specially blessed with gifts from the Ancient Ones—and that we were sexually compatible.

I had never felt that tingle with my old mistress but then, she was forty years my senior and desired no one after her Consort had died. It was a shock to feel it when I touched my new mistress, but I refused to let it show on my face, even though Charlotte gave a little gasp.

“My Empress…my Goddess,” I began formally, looking into her lovely green eyes. “I, Kristoff Xander Verrai, am yours to command. My body shall be your shield. My blood is yours to spill, my shoulders shall carry your burdens, and my lips shall keep your secrets. My heart shall beat only for you. I will never leave you or forsake you—I will follow and protect you until the end of my days. Unswerving Loyalty, Unquestioning Devotion, Unremitting Obedience, and…” I paused for a moment, my throat working. “And Unending Love,” I said, though I hadn’t meant to say it. “These are the code and the credo of the Imperial Guard. Until I die, my Lady, I am yours.”

As I said the last words, a mighty surge ran between us—a rush of electrifying power—of a vow given and received. It was a sign that the Goddess of Mercy had heard and acknowledged my oath to my new mistress.

Charlotte must have felt it too because her eyes got wide and she tried to pull her hands out of mine.

“What was that?” she whispered in an awed voice.

“That was me tying myself to your service for life,” I said simply.

Evangeline Anderson is the New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Brides of the Kindred, Alien Mate Index, and Born to Darkness series. She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.

You can find her online at her website www.evangelineanderson.com
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